ANA Urges Department of Commerce to Push For Do Not Sell Registry for Second-Level Domains

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has urged the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) to work within the Internet stakeholder processes of ICANN to advocate for a Do Not Sell registry at the upcoming ICANN Board meeting next month in Toronto. ANA's letter is a follow-up to a meeting on September 4th that was hosted by DOC and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, to discuss additional protections at the second level for all new gTLDs.

ANA's letter notes that there is growing consensus within the business community to implement a TLD block list to address the serious concerns about the need for defensive registrations at both the top-level and second-level. In addition, some high-volume prospective registry applicants like Donuts, Inc. have stated plans to consolidate their block lists. However, ANA believes that a TLD-by-TLD block list will be wholly inadequate for the number of new gTLDs expected to be approved by ICANN.

ANA has been advocating for ICANN to adopt a "Do Not Sell" registry for almost a year and will be taking part in the upcoming ICANN Board meeting next month in Toronto to continue to push for this common sense approach. ANA's letter concluded: "We are on the verge of grave threats to the stability of the Internet, so now is the time to act."

If you have any questions, you can reach Dan Jaffe in ANA's Washington office at 202-296-2359 or at djaffe@ana.net.

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